North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Nebraska
Rifle Suffers First Loss to No. 9 Nebraska
10/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Rifle
CHARLESTON, S.C. – The NC State rifle team suffered its first loss of the 2014-15 season on Saturday, as the squad was defeated by the ninth-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers in a match held at The Citadel’s rifle range. The Wolfpack fired a team score of 4595, while the Cornhuskers recorded a team score of 4653.
State falls to 12-1 on the season and 0-1 in Great America Rifle Conference (GARC) action, while Nebraska improves to 3-1 and 3-0 in the GARC.
Miller’s Minute
Opening statement…
“We fell just a little short of our expectations of shooting above 4600 in this match,” said head coach Keith Miller. “We need to be above this level to improve our national ranking, so we've got some more work to do. We need more consistent scores from all of our declared top five shooters, but so far we've been inconsistent. We've yet to have all five shoot well on a given day.
“Nebraska was an NCAA Championship team last year, so we expected that they would shoot well. We just wanted to put up a better team score.”
On the team’s top performers…
“Lucas [Kozeniesky] continues to lead us and posted strong scores. Daniel [Cliff] and Alex [Martin] both improved in air rifle, as did Derya [Pekari] in smallbore. Lee Price did a great job in his first smallbore match this season - especially given the limited amount of preparation he was able to do.”
Match Rewind
- NC State registered a team score of 4595 at the match, following a team total of 2322 in the air rifle discipline and a 2273 in smallbore.
- Sophomore Lucas Kozeniesky headlined the Wolfpack’s performance by firing a score of 587 in the air rifle competition and a 578 in smallbore to record an aggregate score of 1165, all of which were the highest on the team.
- Daniel Cliff, a junior on the squad, charted the next best air rifle score with a 584 and tallied a score of 564 in smallbore. His aggregate total was an 1148.
- Junior Alex Martin recorded a 581 in air rifle, while redshirt junior Dani Foster shot a 570 in the event. In smallbore, Martin fired a 565 and Foster carded a 561.
- Freshman Derya Pekari shot a score of 565 in air rifle and a 548 in smallbore to round out the five counting shooters for the Wolfpack.
Up Next
NC State will return to action next weekend when it travels to Lexington, Va., to face VMI and Army on Saturday, Oct. 25.
